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“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”

— Warren Buffett

The above quote from Warren Buffett is timeless, and brings into focus the choice about time horizon that any investor should think about before buying a stock they are considering. Behind every stock is an actual business; what will that business look like over a ten year period?

Today, let’s look backwards in time to 2009, and take a look at what happened to investors who asked that very question about Ansys Inc. (NASD: ANSS), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a ten year holding period.

Start date: 10/26/2009
$10,000

10/26/2009
$51,370

10/24/2019
End date: 10/24/2019
Start price/share: $43.12
End price/share: $221.52
Starting shares: 231.91
Ending shares: 231.91
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 413.73%
Average annual return: 17.78%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $51,370.70

The above analysis shows the ten year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 17.78%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $51,370.70 today (as of 10/24/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 413.73% (something to think about: how might ANSS shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“Searching for companies is like looking for grubs under rocks: if you turn over 10 rocks you’ll likely find one grub; if you turn over 20 rocks you’ll find two.” — Peter Lynch